EC mirrors for automobiles are those which vitiate the effect of headlamp glare from vehicles travelling in the rear by changing reversibly the reflectance with respect to incoming electromagnetic radiation therefrom with electrochromic means. In recent years, the demand of such EC mirrors drastically increased and the production thereof around the world in 1997 reached 4,200,000.
Needless to mention, an EC mirror is required to have a feature to vitiate headlamp glare from vehicles in the rear but is now also required to be lightened and increased in durability.
The major weight of an EC mirror is occupied by that of the glass sheets and it is thus the most suitable manner to thin the glass sheets so as to lighten the EC mirror. However, the thinning of the glass sheets would arise a necessity to place spacers in the cell so as to maintain the cell gap constant. Due to the wider cell gap of an EC cell compared with that of a general liquid crystal cell, the spacers arranged in the former cell gap are irritatingly perceived by the driver when he or she sees the mirror containing the spacers in the cell.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention was made and has an object to provide an electrochromic mirror whose spacers are hardly perceived and thus do not bother the driver's view.